Francis william webb



NITE STATES FRANCIS WILLIAM WIEBB, OF MONKS CHIPIENHALL, OREWE, COUNTYOF CHESTER, ENGLAND.

IMPROVEMENT IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF FAGOTS.

Specification forming part of Lett rs Patent No. 47,077, dated March Q8,1865.

To all whom if may concern,.-

Be it known that I, FRANCIS WILLIAM VEBB, of Monks Chippenhall, Crewe,in the county of Chester, England, engineer, a subject of the Queen ofGreat Britan, have invented or discovered new and useful Improvements inthe Manufacture of Railway-Rails; and I, the said FRANCIS WILLIAM WEBB,do hereby declare the nature of the said invention, and in what mannerthe same is to be performed, to be particularly described andascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say-This invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture ofrailway-rails; and the nature of the same consists in certain comvbinations and arrangements hereinafter described for effecting suchimprovements. For this purpose I make a pile of old double-headed rails,laid head to head and in layers, one above the other, generally, but notinvariably, arranging the pile with two rails in its width a'id threelayers high, the heads of the rails in one layer coming in the hollowsor spaces intermediate of the heads of the rails in the adjacent layeror layers. One of the rails in the central layer -is divided or brokenin half longitudinally and onehalf is placed on each side of the otherrail in the layer. At the top and bottom of the pile a tolerably levelsur face is produced by laying puddle-bars into the hollows or spacesintermediate of the heads of the rails, and the pile is completed withtop and bottom slabs of Bessemer and other cast-steel. These cast-steelslabs I roll with ridges or projections at intervals on their innersurfaces to project and overlap the heads of the rails in the layerabove or below the slab.. I employ these ridges in order to avoid astraight weld between the steel and the body of the pile; also becausethese projecY tions, being thinner than the slab, are more easily heatedto a welding' temperature, so that by the use of them a good weld ismore easily made.

Figure l is an end view of a pile so made.

' a a are old rails, and a a are parts of similar rails, produced bybreaking the rails in half longitudinally, which is readily done under asteam-hammer. b b are puddle-bars. These bars serve not only to give atolerably even surface to receive the steel slab, as before mentioned,but they insure a more perfect weld, as the semi-crystalline puddle-barcombines more freely with the steel than fibrous iron of the old railwill. c c are the steel slabs, (I employ Bessemer steel by preference,)rolled with ridges c c upon them.

Should it not be desired to produce a doubleheaded rail from the pile,one of the steel slabs is omitted, and in place thereof` another layerof rails is added to the pile. In this case there will be a broken railin two ofthe layers, and the layer next the steel slab may be onecontainiu g a broken rail. A pile of this description is shown at Fig.2. A similar method of piling is also applicable in rerolling rails ofthe forni known in England as the contractors section, a forni much usedin America and onthe continentof Europe.v Fig.2 shows such` a pile.

Piles formed as above described, after being heated to a weldin g-heatand hamm ered, rolled, or squeezed into a slab welded throughout. areafterward further heated and rolled to the form of rail required.

I would remark that whenever, in the manufacture of railwayrails, it isdesired to pile a steel facing-.slab with bars of iron it is desirableto roll the slab with ridges on its under side. For example, when pilingpuddle-bars with a facingslab which is dat and smooth on its underside,it is difiicult to get a perfect weld, but this diliiculty is muchdiminished by rolling the under side of the slab with ridges upon it.The puddle-bar of which the pile is made may have grooves formed in itto correspond with and lit the ridges in the steel facing-slab. rlhis isnot, however, essential.

Having thus described the nature of the invention, and the manner ofperforming the same, l-would have it understood that I do not'claini,broadly, the forming piles for rails by the combination of old rails andpuddlebais with facing-slabs of every kind, nor the employment of steelfacing slabs of every kin d, for the formation of piles for rails:l butThat I do claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,is-

1. Forming piles for the manufacture of steel-faced rails by thecombination of old rails, puddlebars, and facing-slabs of caststeel, thesemi-crystalline puddle-bars being interposed between the fibrous oldrails and surfaces for the purpose of facilitating the the crystallinesteel slabs so as to combine the welding` ol' the steel to the i1 on,substantially materials of these two by a material which as set forth.

partakes of the nature of each substantially as described. 7 F W' VEBB'2. Forming` the piles for the manufacture of Witnesses:

steel-faced rails by the combination of iron GEORGE II. \VARREN, bi1-rswith facing-slabs of cast steel provided J OI-IN DEAN, with intermediateprojections on their inner No. 17 Gmcechmch strc-ct, London, E. C.

